Grady @ The Pyramid

So I had to write a review for my Journalism class, and it just so happened to be assigned a couple days before the Grady show.  Figured I'd post it up on here.

Of the approximately 170 people at The Pyramid Cabaret to see Grady on November 19, about 20 would have passed a sobriety test after the show.  The other 150 were a blurry-eyed, word-slurring, stumbling, beer-guzzling, whiskey-shooting ball of energy.  And many would argue that is the best way to see a Grady concert.

The Austin, TX based group, who invented their own genre of “cowboy metal”, made their way to The Pyramid for the third time since October 2009, and as usual kept their fans up and rocking until closing time.  Their two hour set began at the stroke of midnight, as the house music (which was, appropriately, The Headstones’ Greatest Fits album) changed to an upbeat country tune and two towering figures topped with cowboy hats made their way through the crowd from the back of the club.  

The 21 song set featured songs from each of the band’s three albums, and six songs written by frontman Gordie Johnson’s original, more widely known band, Big Sugar.  Rather than play a verbatim cover of the Big Sugar songs, the group “Gradified” them, which typically meant turning up the volume to eleven and slowing it down a few beats per minute. 

The show kicked off with an old Big Sugar hit, Ride Like Hell, which was the first track on Grady’s first release, 2004’s Y. U. So Shady?   Without stopping, they launched into three songs from their latest album, released in 2009, Good as Dead.  As they powered through the booze-soaked Whiskey River, fog blew from the nostrils of a cattle skull that hung from the front of Nina “The Queena” Singh’s transparent drum kit, drawing a chorus of cheers from the crowd.  The trio finally took a break to make sure it was “alright if we play a few truck-drivin’ songs?” then launched into the second Big Sugar song of the night, Three Minute Song from Hit and Run, followed by Truckstop in La Grange, which has a brief throwback to the 1973 ZZ Top hit. 

  

A few songs later came the crowd-favourite title track from Good as Dead, which also contains the title of Grady’s newly released live CD/DVD, filmed in Winnipeg, Calling All My Demons.  During Rolling Thunder, from 2006’s A Cup of Cold Poison, bassist “Big” Ben Richardson was so loud it felt as though thunder were actually rolling through the room, nearing the mythical “brown note.”

After strapping on his custom Gibson double-neck guitar for the second time of the night, Johnson drew the loudest applause of the night when he asked “how about a good ol’ fashioned drinkin’ song?”  The drinkin’ song was On The Wagon, which is about a man about to be hanged pleading for one more whiskey and one more song.  The main set ended at 1:40 with Hammer in my Hand, from Big Sugar’s Heated.  The song was dedicated to openers The Motorleague, and saw the band throw in a verse of Rush’s 1981 hit Tom Sawyer.

After a short encore break, Grady made their way back on stage to play a heavy three song encore, with back-to-back Big Sugar songs, Goodbye Train and Joe Louis.  The set ended at 2 on the dot with Chili Cold Blood, and for what may be the first time ever, without Johnson mentioning the fact that he was born here in Winnipeg at St. Boniface Hospital.

The night opened with The Motorleague, from Moncton, NB playing a lengthy hour-long set.  The first song had the crowd on their feet chanting “directly to hell” along with the band during the repetitive chorus.  Unfortunately, that is where the show went as the east-coasters failed to impress the crowd with their generic pop-punk songs and wannabe-rockstar poses.  All but six people ended up back at their table within a few songs.